Demons and Magic

CHAPTER 12: Surviving Monday

“Did he say anything about liking you?” Nathan asked for the nth time that morning but Alastair just ate her cereal with a blank look on her face — as per usual.

“Who?”

“Warren.”

“Who’s that?”

“Warren! You know, that guy who offered you a ride? That— that guy with the big mansion and the face that looks like he could be a sociopath? Don’t you remember him?”

“Dunno. Doesn’t ring a bell,” Alastair said and shrugged, her facial expression still remaining offensively nonchalant, and Nathan sighed in relief.

“Good.”

···

“Alastair!” A familiar voice rang through the packed hallway as Nathan and Alastair both made their way towards the lockers and they turned to see Warren who was jogging towards them, two other guys flanking him like a bunch of lapdogs.

“Yeah?” Alastair replied coolly and watched as Nathan stuffed his things inside his locker, the small keychain on his bag that says ‘Cool Kidz’ looking particularly interesting to her.

“I was thinking. You know, since we actually live in the same neighborhood now, if you wanted a ride, I could—”

“Nope, she doesn’t need that,” Nathan muttered under his breath and silently prayed he wouldn’t stuff him inside the trashcan for cutting him off.

Warren just scoffed at him but looks to be doing his best to stop himself from beating the crap out of Nathan.

“As I was saying,” he started again. “If you need a ride some time, I’m totally—”

“Nah.” This time, it was Alastair who cut him off. “I have one of those transportation devices now. I originally wanted a horse, but they said the Ferrari’s the best they got. At least there was a tiny horse on it.”

Warren laughed at this. “You’re really funny.”

“I wasn’t joking.”

“Hey, where have you been? I’ve been looking for you!” Jackson called from the other end of the hallway to Nathan, ducking and dodging past everyone on his way.

Following closely behind him was his girlfriend, Sam, the last one in their group of four that is most likely to be the best influence among all of them, which — to be fair — actually says a lot considering Jackson’s the international playboy (or at least, used to be), Nathan is the Teacher’s Pet, and Alastair’s most likely the late blooming psychopath.

“We just went to a convenience store outside,” Nathan replied, nodding back to Sam when she gave him a smile, and stuffed his bag back inside his locker. “Why were you looking for me anyway?”

“Have you had lunch already?” Jackson asked, looking a little distracted as he ran his gaze to Warren who was now flirting with Alastair with his face.

‘Asswipe,’ Nathan thought.

“We already ate at the convenience store. All the food in the cafeteria’s just getting even more expensive these days. I can’t really buy anything there anymore.”

Jackson’s eyes immediately flew back to him and he chuckled, tapping his hand against Nathan’s shoulder. “What the hell are you talking about, bro? Money’s not a problem, now let’s go. I wouldn’t want my mom all up my ass if you starve.” He slung an arm around Nathan’s shoulders and pulled him away from the lockers and towards the cafeteria. “Besides, didn’t you have another one of those part-time jobs? Did you spend it on … you know who or something?” he asked and gestured towards Alastair who was now way ahead of them towards the cafeteria.

Nathan quickly shook his head and ran a tired hand through his hair. “I did have a job now but it’s not as if they’ll pay me that much. I was just doing it for extra cash.”

Jackson just laughed, shaking his head. “Well, you do have a point there.”

Once the three of them reached the cafeteria, they found Alastair among the crowd of students standing around to see the spectacle that is a fist fight. A big guy had his head pinned against the metallic table, an arm twisted behind him, while a guy with dark hair and an equally dark look in his eyes held him down firmly, his jaw clenched.

“Well, hey, it’s good to see you,” Alastair said the moment she saw Nathan even though they’ve been technically together 24/7 and gave him a mirthless smile, eliciting an equally forced grin from him.

“I would say the same, except that isn’t actually the case here.”

Alastair chuckled, and Sam gave them both scrutinizing looks.

“Did something happen between the two of you?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

They both answered at the same time, and Jackson just snickered, walking past them towards where the fight was.

“What happened? You two seem to be okay just this morning,” Sam asked, ignoring the fight going on in the background, and Nathan glared at Alastair.

“She tossed a piece of chalk inside my open mouth in class earlier. I got detention for that after I nearly choked on it in the middle of class,” he replied, averting his gaze, and cursing at Alastair who was only smiling at them with pure satisfaction behind his breath.

Sam just chuckled at this, too, and shook her head, being used to hearing things like these whenever Alastair is around. “Don’t worry about it, Nate. Detention’s not that tough. You just sit around in an empty classroom and do your homework for an hour. You’ll get by.”

Nathan sighed and glared at Alastair once more, finally turning his attention back to the fight.

“The one that’s winning, that’s Keiffer del Fierro, right?” Sam suddenly said after a few minutes of observing the fight from afar and gave Nathan a quick sideways glance. “Doesn’t he live in the same house as the two of you? I think he was that guy I saw when me and Jackson gave the both of you a ride home.”

“Nah. That was our dog,” Alastair interrupted and walked away, heading for the counter.

“I love how she says ‘our’ and not my. You two sound like a married couple,” Sam said and beamed at his absolutely disgusted face. “You don’t have to worry a thing about Keiffer, though. He’s not exactly a bully, but if you mess with him, you know what’s gonna happen.”

Nathan just nodded although totally ignoring all of her words, his mind hovering over the idea of being unaware of Keiffer being some kind of a kickass troublemaker despite being the quiet kid in school.

After lunch, classes resumed with Nathan still too exhausted to use his brain in understanding any of the things that were being discussed. He doesn’t really care whether Newton flew the kite or if it was Ben Franklin who ate the apple or something, he was way too busy scrolling in his phone for possible part-time jobs that would be willing to accept someone who is still in high school.

After all, there’s a bit of a chance that Bryce’s sister would be fired from her work pretty soon. Although it would be good to see her miserable some time, that would also mean he’d be fired.

Twenty minutes into the discussion however, the door suddenly burst open and Alastair, who he did not notice was not with him anymore until he saw her, entered. She only gave the teacher a quick look and the teacher resumed with the lesson, no more questions asked.

Even for someone like Nathan who is used to seeing people with faces as thick as the devil’s, something like this — walking in late and not even bothering to explain herself or at least greet the teacher — is pretty much unheard of in their school.

But maybe things just aren’t done in the same way here in Maxwell High. Maybe the teachers here are just holographic images that you don’t have to greet or something.

“What’s up, golden boy?” Alastair greeted as she sat on the empty stool beside him, her face plastered with a casual but definitely smug-looking smile.

“It’s Nathan, in case you forgot,” he hissed back, his jaw tense.

“What was that, Dobby?”

He pressed his eyes shut, clenching and unclenching his fists as he turned to Alastair who was only staring at him with an innocent look. “It’s Nathan. N A T H A N, Nathan.”

“Ah.” She chuckled. “Sorry. Names are confusing.”

He tossed a fake smile to her and chuckled, too. “Really? Was that why you could remember all the names of the souls you tortured that were serial killers before?”

“Well, you’re not a serial killer, are you?”

“I will be if you don’t remember my name correctly next time.”

“No problem, princess,” Alastair said and smiled, facing the teacher in front and ignoring his lingering stare.

He knows he should be pissed off right now. But it’s kind of hard to do that when she just gave him her first — kind of — sincere smile. In a school setting, she would be that kid who doesn’t really know how to handle things and would often be seen smiling or joking when it’s often inappropriate — just like this one. But maybe he could let it slide just this once.

She looks cute when she smiles.

“Oh, look who’s back,” the Class President AKA Chuck The Great asked the moment Nathan and Alastair walked through the door of the room for their detention.

He nodded as a response to his question and handed him the slip that he got, running his eyes around the place to look for any empty seat that could be as far away from everyone as possible.

“Black leather jacket, plain white shirt, denim pants, and sneakers,” the president suddenly blurted, his eyes hot on Nathan, and smirked. “Aren’t you a tough little guy. Typical bad boy look with the bad boy attitude.” He scoffed. “You’re not even worth the paper that this detention slip is written on. Go to your seat.”

Nathan just gave Chuck a prompt look, his expression turning sour, and headed for the seat towards the back. “Jackass,” he murmured but the president heard and grabbed him by the collar, startling the guy that was sitting closest to them.

“What did you say again?” the president hissed, bearing his teeth at him, and pushed him backwards. “Why don’t you try saying that to my face next time, huh? We’ll see if you’re really as tough as you want us to think then.”

It’s just Monday and he already got himself in detention, he even happened to get on the nerve of the Student Council president — the only student in the whole campus who has the power to hand over detentions and share his opinions regarding getting someone expelled.

It was already a huge punch in the gut when he had to leave his mother to get into a full ride scholarship program. If he happens to be expelled in this school, he’d have to end up swallowing his pride and just be a vagrant somewhere which he finds really hard to do as it always seem to leave a bitter aftertaste of some sort.

He’d have to stay away from fights — something that he finds suddenly impossible after just barely surviving throughout the entirety of Monday.